Herbs and horror stories

Merry meet all,

I can’t wait to tell you all the good news! My short fiction horror story, Skin, will appear in the November issue of the Horror Zine! I am so happy. I am so excited! I now have one more amazing reason to love fall. I never imagined I would get that story published. I got so many rejections but it proves that perseverance and faith pay off. I will post the link here when it is available. I am very happy about that. And no wonder. 

It is so hot here today, as I type at my Mom’s keyboard. I am determined to reach up to 900 blog posts. I’m getting there. My kitty Penny loves it here. She is here somewhere, covering the furniture and chairs with all her abundant cat hair. 

I love herbs. I am sure that anyone who has been loyally following this blog, and I hope some of you do, would know I am a fanatic for herbs. I brought more herbs home recently. I got black petunia flowers, a tricolor sage, another apple mint, calendula, borage and lovage. My garden is beautiful. The apple mint is growing well so I added a second apple mint. The lemon balm patch is huge. I plan to divide it this fall. Then I will have more room in my garden for other herbs. My green pepper plant is starting to show peppers. No tomatoes yet but I am sure they will show up. I bought copper ties to deter the slugs and placed the ties at the bases of my beans, pepper, squash plants. I also added them to the black petunias. I hope the copper ties help. 

This weekend, I plan to make jam with all the frozen fruit in my freezer. Blueberries, strawberries, haskap berries and rhubarb lie in wait. I look forward to that. I also have frozen orange rind. Mm I can imagine the taste already. 

The purple coneflower is coming along and will soon be in bloom. I am not 100% certain yet what is going on with my elecampane plant. I cut the lovage back and I noticed new growth. The mint herbs I have: apple mint, peppermint, spearmint, after eight mint and strawberry mint are growing well. They will make nice tea herbs. The lemon balm intends to take over the garden and makes no mystery about it. The nettle is growing well but I didn’t get much mugwort this year. The comfrey is growing well but I need to tie up the canes. I spied a few Chinese lanterns are growing well. The blueberries will be ripe soon and so will the raspberries. My garden receives more sunlight because the hurricane broke a tree branch. I believe that is why my garden is so beautiful and fruitful this year. The sage and oregano are growing well too as are the lavender and rosemary. 

My garden surprises me every year. I regularly water my garden, protect it, and fertilize it. I add plant supports and I usually just stand back and let my garden do its thing. I love gardening and watching my plants become beautiful and vibrant. I suppose I could bring in the lavender. I will bring in the rosemary, since I have a grow light kit. I plan to harvest a lot of dandelion roots this fall and use my dehydrator to dry them. 

I really want to see the upcoming horror movie, The Last Voyage of the Demeter. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001520/ I really can’t wait and I have saved up for it. The other movie I want to see is the new instalment in The Conjuring franchise, Insidious: The Red Door. Yeah I love the movies so much, of The Conjuring and Insidious. I want to write more horror stories (well, see top paragraph for a good explanation of why.) Pretty darn nice to get it published! I never expected that. Yeah I have to keep writing. Moments like that renew my enthusiasm and give me one more reason to keep living and keep going. It’s a bad idea to quit writing, no matter how hard, because one day that editor may send you an acceptance email. So please, persevere! Prove your mettle! 

And stay cool during all this great hot summer heat. It won’t last. Fall is around the corner!

Blessings, Spiderwitch

 

 

 

Magickal Spring Herbs )O(

Merry meet all,

I want to post a lot about herbs and gardening. It is my passion and my focus right now. I still love the paranormal and I will keep posting about that. I want to see my readers succeed if they choose to grow your own herbs for medicinal and magickal purposes. But magic and herbs skip together and have for thousands of years. I hope you enjoy the series of posts about how to grow the best most beautiful and magickal herbs ever. 

In other news, I am excited about spring! The next turn in the Wheel of the Year is Beltane! Everyone loves Beltane. I bought a new pair of green herb scissors, a cool grey watering can, a book about identifying plants titled Botany in a Day and a magazine about alchemy. My herbs, marigold and vegetables are all growing well. I transplanted the marigold plants, mugwort and calendula into new bigger pots- more room for their roots. They are happily growing by the windowsill. The radishes, carrots, tomatoes and pepper plants are doing fine. I added mycorrhizae to the soil. I am sure it’s benefitting the plants by helping them grow better roots. 

I grow my herbs and veggies with love and patience. I believe it really takes patience. That is the number one skill for a budding gardener/ herbalist to have. Patience. I watched a two-hour video about a woman who created nightshade ointments but it took her fifteen years to master the ointment making. She was dealing with poisonous herbs so I can see how it would take years of dedication and practice. That sounds about the right amount of time. She really knew her stuff. Wow I was so impressed. It has taken me a long time to master what I know now only to have to start all over again at the Herbal Academy. I have so much to learn and thankfully plenty of time to devote to learning it all too. I want to share what I learned with my dear readers!

She can be found on Instagram at bane folk! 

I signed up for a Foraging course at the Herbal Academy. I get two foraging pocket guide books that are a part of the course. I will be busy scribbling in the pocket guides too. I look forward to improving my foraging skills and learning new things. I have foraged elderberries, burdock roots, dandelion roots, goldenrod, St.John’s wort and other herbs but now I can build on what I know. 

I like to think that anyone who aspires to be a green Witch, a hedge witch, a kitchen witch or just learn about herbs in general, that the Herbal Academy is the place to be. I wouldn’t study anywhere else. I highly recommend them to anyone who is curious about the amazing world of herbs! 

I do believe I grew my plants too early this year. The squash and mugwort are growing quite big! They will take over the space soon. It’s only April. Next spring, I will start them in April instead of February. At least they get a longer growing season this way. 

I have a ticket to StokerCon and a ticket to the first Paranormal Symposium. I can’t wait for both events. I am a bit more excited about the Paranormal Symposium because there has to my knowledge never been one before. It takes place in October. I have a long wait but I know it is worth it. I have new books, Demons and Demonology by Rosemary Guiley, The Horror Trope Thesaurus, Writing Gothic Fiction and Writing in Deep POV. I will enjoy these books! I want to work on a new writing project so those books will definitely help me!

Enjoy spring!

Blessings Spiderwitch )O(

Herbal whipped Body Butter )O(

Chamomile and calendula body butter

Merry meet all,

This week, I whipped up my very first batch of herbal body butter. Today this post will be about how I did it. When I began, I didn’t know what I was doing. I picked up a few pointers along the way. Now let’s get started!

To make your own body butter, you will need the following tools and ingredients:

• a saucepan
• a measuring cup
• dried herbs,  chamomile and calendula
• essential oils such as lavender and roman chamomile
• Jojoba, grapeseed oil or sweet almond oil
• beeswax
• shea butter
• coconut oil
• a wooden spoon
• an electric mixer
• a spatula
• thermometer (optional)
• a jar to store the body butter in
• labels to adhere to the jar
• a double boiler

Ok, I would suggest you use dried herbs. Fresh herbs have too much moisture in them. If the dried herbs were stored properly, they will not make the mixture go rancid. I did a water bath to infuse the herbs into the oils and waxes faster. Add the chamomile and calendula to a clean dry jar and then add in the coconut oil. Let sit for about three to four hours. Add water to the lower pot. Use a double boiler for this step. Then add in the coconut oil. Be patient with this step. Eventually the waxes and oils and herbs will mix and blend. If you are really keen on infusing the oils with the herbs, you can let it sit overnight. Do not let water get into the mixture. 

The herbs are brewing in the double boiler on the stove!

Remove from the heat and strain the herbs. Compost the herbs and store the oil in a jar. I loved the scent of the oil- it smelled so good! I added the herbal infused oil to a bowl and whipped the oils with my electric mixer. Ok it changed color. This is where the fun began, if that is what you could call it. Now we have to get the potion to mix or synergize, if you will. This is the hard part. I whipped for a few moments. The oils and waxes stubbornly refused to thicken. I put it in the fridge for an hour. When the time was up, I removed it from the fridge and whipped it again with my electric mixer. I kept stirring with a wooden spoon. It remained in a liquid form. I tried to reheat the mixture and the oils rose to the surface. I hit up google for tips on what to do. 

I returned the mixture to the fridge where I let it sit for a few hours. I removed it from the fridge and was shocked to discover it finally thickened! Delighted, I set about to again turn it into a body butter. This potion making takes some stubbornness and insistence. So hang in there. I let it sit for five minutes then I plugged the electric mixer in and whipped it for a few moments. Success! I sprinkled in the lavender and roman chamomile essential oils. I didn’t reheat the mixture again after I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Important tip there! The waxes, oils and butters take a few hours to thicken. 

I spooned the body butter into a beautiful glass jar. I cleaned and sanitized the jar first. I don’t want to let any contamination into the jar. Every time you use it, ensure your hands or a spoon are perfectly clean to avoid it going rancid. So you can see how patience is a virtue when making whipped body butter. You don’t want it to  be a liquid but you also don’t want it to go too hard. I added a lot more coconut oil, shea butter and two tablespoons of beeswax before I let it chill in the fridge. The mixture need more waxes than liquid. Clean up your workspace and test it on your skin.

Do not store it in the fridge. I store the jar in the bathroom and leave the window open a crack. I love the feel and scent of the body butter. It dries and absorbs into my skin immediately and leaves my skin silky soft! I know I will use it up so fast. The scent is heavenly! This is my first body butter but it will not be my last. 

Do not store the bottles of shea butter and coconut oil in the fridge. They will harden and be no good. The tools and ingredients are no doubt expensive for you so be careful when you clean up to make sure you minimize the potential of something going moldy. I ran hot, like really hot water over the dishes I used to make the butter. I ran the hot water over the double boiler a long time. I ordered the shea butter online so safety is my first concern.

I hope this inspires you to make your own heavenly body butter potions. Let me know how it goes!

Blessings, Spiderwitch 

Autumn wonders

Merry meet all,

I am proud to announce I graduated from the Intermediate level at the Herbal Academy. I look forward to new challenges and learn about new ways to use herbs in the next level, Advanced. I am sure there will be many challenges ahead for me. Bring it on!

I found new  fun ways to use herbs this summer. I dyed a big pile of plain muslin cloth with goldenrod. The fabric dyed a beautiful muted gold/ yellow shade. I’m infusing garlic cloves and garden grown basil in vinegar. I made a potent rose petal elixir, I concocted a St.John’s wort tincture and two salves, and I plan to make a jar of elderberry syrup. I look forward to using my herbal potions and learning more about herbs at the Herbal Academy. This fall I have a grow light. I just transferred the herbs I began from seed and my root cuttings of mint, basil, rue, nettles calendula, thyme and dill. The thyme and dill are growing in a yogurt container so their deep roots have room to grow. The other herbs were transferred to a deeper pot. They are all growing under the grow light. I wonder how I ever managed without a grow light. Grow lights are awesome! I’m trying to grow root veggies too. I hope that goes well. 

I even used herbs on my witch’s broom. I know that cinnamon brooms can be bought online. Why not do it yourself? I coated the broom with glue and dabbed the ground cinnamon onto the broom then I sprinkled cinnamon essential oil. It has dried in a large clear plastic bag for two weeks. The broom that I also made myself smells lovely now. Argh I do believe I have been stung by the very nettle I just transplanted. I grew a big lovely pumpkin vine but no pumpkins. The bees love the male flower pollen but all their hard work is for naught. Every female pumpkin flower has turned brown, shrivelled and died. There are many male pumpkin flowers. The tomatoes are finally growing and the scarlet runner bean vines are flush with beans. I plan to harvest all the herbs from my garden soon and bring the rosemary and oregano in for the winter. 

I’m harvesting lovage which I did earlier and made a lovely jar of lovage salt! Lemon balm, lemon basil, lavender, calendula, mint, sage, borage leaves, chamomile, chives, raspberry leaves, astilbe seeds, elecampane seeds and roots, dandelion roots, cucumbers, shallots, kale ( may overwinter it). The nasturtiums are annuals. I will miss them, I find the leaves so tasty. I will be busy this fall harvesting roots, flowers and seeds!

Being near this abundance of nature sure saves me money for studying at the Herbal Academy. It’s expensive enough to purchase and store the herbs. I have to have enough jars and room to store the jars. I don’t have enough room so I just don’t splurge on a huge amount of herbs at once. I buy 5 grams or more at least and then I can just refill the labeled and dated jars in my apothecary. 

I have to make sure I downloaded all the PDFs for the Intermediate level at the Herbal Academy. I left a glowing testimonial on how much I enjoyed the fun yet mentally stimulating. Herbs have taken over my life. Maybe I should say this course has taken over my life. I find I don’t have much time to do all the other things I need to do, like get back into my writing horror fiction for one. I hope I can manage it all. 

The fall season is off to a great start. On top of that, Mabon and Samhain are not far away. I can’t wait. I look forward to hearing about how all of you readers are spending your fall season too. Comment below!

Blessings, Spiderwitch

 

 

Seeds of hope, flowers of glory )O(

Merry meet all,

Oh my goddess ! I have so many seedlings in my apartment I could fill a store up with them. I’m running out of room. I decided I would share tips on how I successfully began my seedlings in this post today. Grab a cuppa herbal tea and enjoy this post!!!

First, let’s begin with you figuring out what your intentions are. Do you want to grow lots of veggies to hold off on a possible food shortage? Do you want to grow a witch’s garden for teas and potions? Do you like a conventional garden of just flowers and herbs? Do you dare to grow some poisonous witch’s herbs? ( in which case, if so, research them first and please, PLEASE don’t plant them if kids and pets visit your garden. Or grow in pots indoors away from kids and pets- and wildlife and adults.)

Do you have the room and the budget and the time to devote to a garden? Once you have fully realized your intentions and answered the other questions, we can move to the next step. Growing the witchy herbs that you can harvest and enjoy all summer long. My intention is easy. I am studying herbalism and so I want to grow herbs that I can learn about at the Academy. I want to grow a lot of herbs to save money and not need to buy them at a local organic food store. I want to learn how to use these herbs medicinally and for my witchy path too. See how I did that?

Growing your own herbs helps you get to know the plants on a deeper level too. Herbs like mint, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme and sage are good herbs  for healing and can be used in cooking. Yarrow, white, sage, nettles, mugwort are also witchy! Choose organic or heirloom seeds. Use good quality potting soil. Do use good soil. Don’t waste your money on low quality soil. The care you give the seeds and seedlings now pays off hugely in the future. Good quality soil encourages stronger root growth and helps you grow stronger plants and is affordable. The benefits you will receive of growing stronger plants outweights opting for cheap soil from a dollar store. Go with the strong seedlings and then you can choose which ones to thin out later.

Use a grow light or a big sunny window to grow your plants. I don’t own a grow light. I just arrange the pots at a window and sacrifice the space in my home until the frost passes. I water them frequently when the soil is dry. The trick is not to overwater the seedlings. Get a spray bottle to mist the plants. Don’t drown them or the roots will rot. 

So, now you know why you want to grow herbs, you have your grow lights and/ or a sunny window, your soil and your organic heirloom seeds. Now what? Here is the fun part and the hardest part- you have to have patience. Plant one or more seeds- just a few- in each starter pot. Label the pots to know what you planted where. That makes it easier on you unless you have an amazing memory. I can never remember. You can use popsicle sticks for labels. You can even draw sigils on them or witchy pentacles! Use your imagination!

If you have a plastic dome, cover the starter pots with the dome. This traps the moisture which seeds like to grow. You can empower the seed pots with your witchy intentions for them to grow strong. If you don’t have a dome, use saran wrap to cover the pots. Don’t layer it on to smother the plants. Leave an inch or two of space because that might kill the plants. Every so often, lift the saran wrap and let them get full sun. When they grow their true leaves, keep the dome or wrap off. Have lots of patience here. You get more life out of the green babies with tons of sweet talk and coaxing than using brute force. Trust me. Now is the time to cultivate a nurturing nature. I am not saying you would be cruel but gently guiding them and not getting angry if you don’t get the results you want is much better. Sometimes, plants just won’t grow for whatever reason.

When they outgrow the starter pots, you can gently tuck them into slightly bigger plant pots. That is the fun part! I love watching plants I began from seed grow into these beautiful herbs. I just love that, that and their scent. There are just so many amazing things about herbs.  I can’t list them all here but I know you know what I mean. 

The tips:

• Remember, don’t over water them!
• Keep the soil just moist.
• Practice organic gardening methods.
• Choose good quality soil and good starter pots. 
• Be gentle and don’t use pesticides. You kill the beneficial insects. 
• Trust that the herbs will grow into beautiful plants. Let go and let mama earth do what she do best. 

I can’t wait till the frost passes. I can’t wait to grow the white sage, sage, yarrow, kale, leeks, peppers, tomatoes, borage, anise, calendula, cucumbers, echinacea, dill, and lemon basil – all begun from seeds – outdoors. I cannot wait. I have saved scarlet runner beans, the seeds I have mentioned here and rue and yarrow seeds on order. I can’t wait to get growing! 

It is all predetermined in a single tiny seed. That seed can grow into a huge plant. Each seed contains the DNA of the plant. If that doesn’t amaze you, it sure amazes me. Some seeds have to be planted 1/4 inch under the soil and some need to be planted deeper into the soil. I go by the sizes of the seeds to determine that. Bigger seeds can go deeper into the starter pots. Seeds, like chamomile, are just spread over the surface of the soil. They are so tiny and fine. 

Here is the link to a company using organic methods and seeds: https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com. 

If you get dark, rainy weather like we do here in the Maritimes, then you can turn a lamp on and place it next to your plants. This helps them get maximum light. A grow light does help plants grow well. You can also use a fan to trick the plants into growing thicker stalks and stems. It mimics the wind. 

I hope the above tips and tricks inspire you to get growing your own amazing herbs! Blessings, 

Spiderwitch